'Made in India' branding on steel products to take country on global stage

New Delhi, June 18: As India doubles down on domestic manufacturing of products across industries, the steel producers in the country are not lagging behind and most of them now have achieved labelling their products as ‘Made in India’. 

Apart from making Indian steel products more attractive to buyers, the initiative would also ensure standardised quality of goods.

The first-of-its-kind initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was later conceptualised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and implemented by the Ministry of Steel.

In November last year, the Consultative Committee meeting for the Ministry of Steel discussed the progress on the novel initiative by the Steel Ministry and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to introduce branding and labelling of ‘Made-in-India’ steel products in the global market.

Then Steel Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia (now Telecom Minister in the Modi 3.0 government) had said that the “initiative for an Indian ministry, labelling and branding will ensure the standardised quality of products made by all our Indian steel producers (ISPs)”.

Now, at least 80 per cent of the ISPs have labelled their products with ‘Made in India’, and the rest are likely to do so by the end of this month.

The ‘Made in India’ branding, along with a QR code, helps in detailing the domestic steel products.

The Ministry of Steel was the first ministry to come up with such a branding exercise, where a single brand identity for Indian-made steel will represent India’s strong manufacturing potential.

The ‘Made in India’ branding was rolled out for select products of all major ISPs. The ISPs-QCI portal Application Programming Interface (API) integration was also completed for Label and QR code authentication.

Scindia had emphasised on the efforts to build India as a “manufacturing centre” of the world, which requires a unified and distinctive identity for Indian steel that reflects its quality, innovation, and sustainability practices.

Union Heavy Industries and Steel Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy, said recently that he would work under the guidance of PM Modi to realise his vision.

Kumaraswamy said his focus is to increase production across the country and generate employment.